goals and rewards

This week's challenge is to make a list of both our long-term and short-term goals and come up with ideas to reward ourselves for reaching those goals. That's great!!! I've been wanting to do this for a long time anyway, and now I can even earn some bonus points for it! (For once, my tendency to procrastinate actually paid off... hahaha...)

The goals were pretty easy to set. I mean, it's crystal clear: I want to lose weight, so I just picked a few milestones that are on my way to my goal. The rewards were a different matter. At first, I could hardly come up with things I could reward myself with that would really push me to reach them... And then, once I started, more and more things came to my mind so that I now have wonderful reward system in place which hopefully gets me going!

My short-term goals and rewards:


These are all the little (and not so little) things I thought of to reward myself... Mind you, these rewards rewards are only for my short-term goals! It's a bit like a catalogue of goodies I can choose from when I 'earn' enough bonus points. Cool, eh?

And here's how it works:

As I'm usually not very good with long-term challenges I decided to give myself some smaller incentives that last only a week at a time. Whenever I complete one (or more) of these little challenges I earn some 'bonus points' which in return can be used on something from my goodie list. In order to make things a bit more interesting, not every item costs the same amount of bonus points... The smaller things can be achieved more easily while the bigger things 'cost' more. This way, I'll really have to 'work' for my rewards!

Challenges (lasting for a week):

• Go to work by bike every day! --- 2 bonus points
• Drink at least 2 litres of water every day! --- 1 bonus point
• Swim more than 7 km! --- 2 bonus points
• Do the C25K programme on three days! --- 1 bonus point
• Stay within my points allowance every day! ---1 bonus point
• Do 30 crunches / 10 push-ups / 20 lunges every day! --- 1 bonus point
  

Rewards:

• 5 bonus points: book, audiobook, cinema, body shop olive shampoo
• 10 bonus points: cookbook, bobby brown cosmetics, exercise dvd
• 15 bonus points: hat, flip flops, sunglasses, glasses, jewellery
• 20 bonus points: kettle bells, heart rate monitor, trainers, tankini, jeans, sports bra, handbag
• 25 bonus points: click pedals for my bike, denim jacket, leather boots, running shoes, softshell
• 30 bonus points: racing bike, macro lens

Ok, I'm not entirely sure yet whether the amount of points given for each incentive and needed for these items are realistic and fair... I might change this around a bit as I go along. I want my goals (and the rewards!) to be achieveable but not too easy to get.

Also, it just occurred to me that I'm going to have to juggle a whole lot of 'points' with this system AND being on weightwatchers... Maybe I'll just collect stickers instead? This would be visual too and probably a lot more fun! Either way, I'm looking forward to some cool new stuff... :)



My mid-term goals and rewards:

So these little incentives are all very nice, right? And hopefully they will keep me on my toes and add up to something good... feeling better, being more healthy, improving my overall fitness and of course weight loss! Yes, ultimately it's losing weight I want to achieve, so I think I should reward myself for reaching weighty milestones. I'm now 77 kilos, so I can see a little reward in my hopefully near future...

Weigh less than 75 kilos

A pedicure! I don't nearly take enough care of my feet... This will be so nice!

Weigh less than 70 kilos

A massage! By the time I reach this milestone I'll have worked pretty hard already... it'll be around my 10% weight loss. Sure I'll have earned a massage, right?

Weigh less than 65 kilos

A special day at the Hamam (turkish bath) just for me! My mother, my sister and I usually go there once a year... It's pure heaven! So so nice! It'll be my special treat for myself when I reach this milestone.

Weigh less than 60 kilos

A day (or say an hour) at Bobby Brown's! I was never one to wear a lot of makeup (or any, for that matter) for the simple reason that I don't really know how to apply it properly... It just looks weird on me. One of my best friends studied to be a makeup artist recently though, so when she needed a model I volunteered. And she did an amazing job! I totally loved it! So when I reach this milestone, I'm going to have my face done and learn the basics.

My long-term goal and reward:

My goal weight is 55 kilos. It's been almost 15 years since I only weighed this much... I chose this number because it's right smack in the middle of the healthy weight range for my height. I know it's going to take a lot of work to get there. But get there I will. Because look at what awaits me once I get there!

Yes, it's a shopping day! But not only any old shopping day, but an entire shopping trip to a destination of my choice!!!! Hurray!!!! You see, I couldn't decide on whether I should go for a new wardrobe or a vacation as my final reward... so I just decided to combine both! Very clever, huh? Because let's be practical here, when I reach my goal, I'm going to NEED new clothes, right? The old one's won't fit! But I love love love travelling, and this is actually a much bigger incentive for me to get there... I could go see a city I've always wanted to visit! I could meet a fellow blogger on the trip! Oh the possibilities... :)

So I guess I better start saving up! And I already have an idea on how to get extra cash for the trip... You see, from now on, I want to see losses at my weekly weigh-ins! So should I have a gain, I'm going to pay a fee of $100 into my saving funds for the shopping trip. Yes, I realise that this is not a 'real' penalty as I'm going to have more money if I gain... but I'm just going to pretend it is.

Thanks Amy for making this weekly challenge! It totally motivated me to sit down and think about my goals and where I'm heading and coming up with those rewards just gave me that extra kick I needed. And it was so much fun thinking of all the things I could pamper myself with! Can't wait to get my first reward!